The invention relates, for example, to rotary duplicator machines including a rotary printing drum on which is mounted a printing form bearing an image in the form of a multiple line text. A moving means is activatable for causing a counterpressure roller to swing towards the printing drum, to transfer the entire text on the printing form onto whole-page sheets transported between the drum and the counterpressure roller, and to transfer individual lines of line groups onto smaller-format cards or slips transported between the drum and the counterpressure roller. A sheet feeding means is activatable for feeding whole-page sheets to the drum; a card feeding means is activatable for feeding smaller-format cards to the drum. A diverting means is activatable for diverting printed whole-page sheets transported away from the drum directly to a downstream delivery station, and for diverting smaller-format printed cards into a branch path in which the cards are turned over so as to be deposited at the delivery station each one printed-side-down upon the back of the previously printed card. A marking means located intermediate the drum and the delivery station is activatable for providing routing marks on the printed sheets and cards to facilitate their subsequent routing.
In particular, the invention is concerned with the control of the activation of such activatable means in a printing machine of the general type in question.
Rotary duplicator machines provided with plural sheet feeding units for feeding in different respective types of sheets are already known. The control of the feeding units is effected in dependence upon a preestablished program contained in a program storage. However, the programmed series of operations, i.e., the preselection of the activatable means to be activated, the number of activations of each activatable means, and the sequences of activations, is controlled in relation to the number of rotations performed by the rotary printing drum. For example, one feeding means feeds one sheet of a first type per printing drum rotation until the preselected number of rotations (assumed to correspond to the preselected number of sheets) have been performed. Thereupon, the next feeding means feeds one sheet of a second type per printing drum rotation, until the preselected number of rotations (likewise assumed to correspond to the preselected number of sheets) have been performed, and so forth. This known feeding means control system has the disadvantage that malfunctions of the feeding means are not taken into account by the control system. For example, if for some reason one feeding means is not actually performing sheet feeding operations, but the printing drum continues to rotate, the programmed sequence of operations simply continues on, e.g., after the first predetermined number of rotations, the next sheet feeding means begins to feed. Another disadvantage of the known control system is that only alternative operation of the plurality of feeding means can be program-controlled.